A typical virtualization system 100 is illustrated in FIG. 1. Virtualization software 102 can run as a conventional application on a server using a standard operating system 104 such as Linux® or Windows®. The virtualization system enables hardware and software system resources to be “virtualized” for the use of other applications. These hardware and software resources are referred to as proxied resources 106 in a virtualized system. The system can run standard software applications within the virtualized system. The applications operating within the virtualization system are referred to as virtual application instances, or virtual instances 108. Each virtual instance typically emulates a computer environment, including an operating system. For instance, the host operating system 104 of the server may be Windows while a virtual instance may run an application on a Linux operating system.
The virtual instance 108 is typically provided with all of the standard interfaces and services that it expects from an operating system through the proxied resources. The virtualization system can supply interfaces to a file system, network communication, memory and other standard supporting infrastructure that is typically supplied by an operating system.
A virtualization system 100 provides a means by which services and hardware resources can be shared across multiple applications without the need to modify the applications to enable such sharing. A system owner can achieve significant savings in hardware costs by running multiple instances of unmodified applications on standard hardware and software.
The virtual instances 108 operating in a virtualization system 100 operate as separate instances without knowledge or interaction with each other. The management of the virtualization infrastructure treats each of these individual applications as a “black box” computing server without knowledge of each application's capabilities and inner workings. This management model is not sufficient for many system owners needs. In particular, a manager does not have the ability to provide service or content oriented support for a system owner that is running large numbers of virtualized instances since each instance operating in a virtualization system is opaque.
Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated, and specific language will be used herein to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended.